Just like every other year, 2014 began with people all over the world making bold resolutions, and many of them probably involved their health. While some just want to lose weight or get more exercise, others are interested in improving their overall lifestyle. This has become huge business for the health industry, and as a result, there’s an almost intimidating amount of products on the market these days. Though I don’t pretend to be an expert on the matter, I recently tested out two new health-related products that could be exactly what you need to ensure you actually follow through on that New Year’s resolution.

BASIS B1 FITNESS TRACKER

Fitness trackers were all the rage in 2013, but the Basis B1 is unique in that it not only measures things like steps walked and calories burned, but also tries to help you form new habits that lead to a healthier lifestyle. Using advanced sensors on the back of the watch that track your heart rate, motion and physiological materials like perspiration, the Basis B1 can uncover bad sleep patterns and levels of stress that you may not even be aware of. Yep, in addition to automatically recognizing activities like walking, running and biking, it also tracks your sleep, including how many hours of rest you get each night and when you go to bed and wake up. It then crunches all that data into an easy to read graph that shows when you’re most active, what time of day your heart rate is most elevated, how much you sweat and more.

The Basis B1 has flaws just like any other fitness tracker (the Bluetooth syncing is particularly slow and it doesn’t account for things like stationary bike riding), but for those that want to know more than just how many calories they burned in a given day, it’s a great way to learn about your habits and even provides you with achievement-based goals towards becoming a better, healthier you. The Basis B1 also functions as a watch, and it boasts such a simple and clean design that it’s the kind of accessory you can wear without looking like you just came from the gym.

A column by Mike Furci that brings you research, trends and other info to help you with your fitness, health and nutritional needs.

…you should exercise with a cold? Dr. Kaminsky and other researchers at Ball State encourage people to exercise when they have colds as long as the symptoms are above the neck. It’s the types of colds that produce symptoms below the neck like chest congestion and muscle aches that they’re more cautious with.

Two studies were performed over a decade ago in the journal Medicine and Science in Sports Medicine and showed surprising results. The researchers found no difference in symptoms between those who exercised and those who didn’t; there was no difference between maximum exercise performance between the groups, and there was no difference in recovery time from colds. (Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1997, Med Sci Sports Exerc. 1998)

…that a fever is a natural beneficial function of your body to fight off invading organisms when the primary lines of defense, your immune system, fail? So many people misunderstand fever, and believe it to be dangerous. This is primarily due to our “take a pill for everything society” created by physicians and big pharma. Your body raises its temperature because most infectious organisms cannot survive this environment; the ideal temperature for fighting infections is between 102 and 103 degrees F. The problem is, just as our bodies are doing what’s needed to eradicate the infection, we self medicate with, or worse yet, give our children, anti-pyretic drugs like acetaminophen, ibuprofen and aspirin by themselves or in combination.

It’s very important to think of a fever as a healing response. And contrary to popular belief, the best action is almost always little or no action. Rather than trying to lower a fever through medication, try to work through it and allow it to run its course. To support a fever, Colleen Huber and other naturopathic physicians recommend consuming liquids such as broths and water until the fever breaks. The body slows down the movement of food in the gut (peristalsis), so avoid solid food. Another and perhaps most important recommendation to support a fever is rest. Activity uses the body’s essential energy needed to fight invading organisms, and hinders the immune function.

The benefits of a fever:

• Directly kills invading organisms through heat.
• Stimulates antibody production more specific to the infection than any antibiotic.
• More interferon is produced to block the spread of viruses to healthy cells.
• Stimulates production white blood cells which mobilize and attack invaders.

GLORY is the premiere kickboxing organization in the world. And even if you aren’t familiar with it yet, Spike TV is betting it will take off. Similar to the way Spike popularized the UFC with an unprecedented TV deal in 2005, the network is betting on the crossover appeal of kickboxing, featuring GLORY kickboxing events on a monthly basis.

“We really like this sport,” said Jon Slusser, Spike’s senior Vice President of Sports. “If you talk to people who like MMA, they love kickboxing. With the growth of MMA and the growth of combat sports over the last decade, a reintroduction of the sport is what we think will give this sport the boost it needs to really climb into the spotlight,” says Slusser.

Middleweight Wayne Barrett finds himself in the perfect place at the perfect time. On the mat is where his opponents have found themselves since the former Golden Gloves boxing champ turned pro.

As an amateur, Barrett compiled a 19-1 kickboxing and Muay Thai record. Barrett’s GLORY debut came in a September when he knocked out Robby Plotkin in the first round. In his second GLORY fight, he toyed with and then knocked out previously undefeated Mike Lemaire in round two. In a total of 23 fights, he has amassed 18 knockouts.

“I’ve never seen anything moving so fast,” said Barrett about his career coinciding with the rise of GLORY as an organization.

“Everything behind the scenes is being done so well, that at this time next year we will be really relevant. GLORY has done their homework and is doing it the right way, not trying to do it all overnight. As a result, I think you’ll see a lot of crossover; guys leaving MMA for kickboxing. There’s going to be even more money in this sport because there already is. Like Joe’s check for $150,000 for winning the middleweight tournament. That is the most money a kickboxer has ever made in the United States.”

The “Joe” Barrett referred to is fellow middleweight Joe Schilling, who back in September won the four-man, one-night GLORY Middleweight Tournament and a purse of $150,000.

Saturday November 23rd on Spike TV, Barrett faces Schilling at Madison Square Garden in New York City for the inaugural GLORY Middleweight Championship.

MRSA – what the hell is that? MRSA is the bacteria that causes Staph infections and is a lot easier to say than its given name of “Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus.” It may sound like a character off of “Sesame Street,” but it is no joke. Staph infections can mutate into a flesh eating “Necrotizing fasciitis” which can devour human flesh, and sometimes, entire NFL franchises, like the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In the first part of our interview with Dan Hardy, the UFC fighter discussed his feelings toward allowing cardiologists to put wires into his heart to determine the extent of his Wolf Parkinson White Syndrome in order to be cleared to fight. In Part Two, Dan discusses fighter pay, his sponsor’s reaction to his heart condition, his WolfCam training videos, his views on Carlos Condit, the mental edge of athletics and passing on learned lessons.

Mike Furci: Well, as much as I would love to see you fight like many other MMA fans, I have to agree with your decision. What has your sponsor’s reaction been to this situation?

Dan Hardy: You know what? I really can’t thank my sponsor enough. I really expected it to cause all kinds of problems and it’s really not. Venomfight and Xyience are just behind me all the way. They’re still selling my shirts, my shorts and Xyience is still promoting me. It’s refreshing because it’s given me a little bit of time to really get this figured out without having to worry about getting to a fight to pay bills.

It really means a lot. You know, obviously in a situation like this, it would be quite easy to turn their back and move onto the next fighter, but that’s not been the case. I don’t just feel like a commodity now; I truly feel like part of the team.

MF: That’s a hell of a tribute and says a lot about those two corporations – Venum and Xyience. So what’s this I hear you’re claiming to be in the best shape of your life? What’s different about your training now and what are some of the reasons you believe you’re in such great shape?

Dan: Well, this situation with the Wolf-Parkinson-White kind of lit a fire in my ass and my solution to being disallowed to fight is to prove that I’m able to fight by physically just being far better than I have before. I’m not getting beat up as much, I’m not doing the sparing and that type of stuff, so I’m able to train for much longer and I’m doing a lot of yoga. The thing is, the studio is so hot – I mean it’s a 90-minute session and I lose about eight pounds a session. I’m really working on my flexibility. Just basically all-around fitness and flexibility is what I’m going for. It’s kind of funny that my career is potentially coming to an end and I’m actually just finding my stride in my training camp. Totally ironic.

MF: Speaking of training, can you talk a little bit about the WolfCam and your series of training videos that you’ve got YouTube?

Dan: Yeah. Well, I was getting a lot of questions about training, and so the best way for me to answer these questions was just to make a video available. My intention is just to kind of show people what I am doing. Really, I’m not trying to educate anybody or say, “You should be doing this.” You know, if I can make this information available, then hopefully someone will benefit from it. And the feedback from people who are doing my training sessions has been very positive.